Man gets 10-14 years in alcohol-related crash

COLUMBUS — A 22-year-old Norfolk man was driving tipsy more than twenty five mph over the speed limit on Jan. Twenty eight when he lost control of his car, careened across four lanes of traffic and went airborne in a one-vehicle rollover crash that killed two people.

“This case is nothing brief of tragic,” Platte County District Court Judge Robert Steinke told Genaro Anaya on Tuesday before sentencing the defendant to ten to fourteen years in prison for his convictions on two counts of motor vehicle homicide.

Passenger Candace Randall-Stewart, Nineteen, of Columbus, was pronounced dead at the scene of the Two:33 a.m. Jan. Twenty eight accident. She was a backseat passenger in the vehicle.

A 2nd passenger, Zachary Tharnish, 22, of St. Edward, died Feb. One at the University of Nebraska Medical Center from injuries suffered in the crash.

A third passenger, Skye Butterfield, Legal, of Columbus, was treated for her injuries and released from the hospital. She suffers from continuing health issues.

“If only the clock could be turned back . this has had a devastating influence on the victims’ family members,” said Steinke while providing Anaya credit for one hundred eighty seven days already served since the deadly crash.

Anaya could be released in as little as five years if he’s a model prisoner. The motor vehicle homicide convictions are Class III felonies, each punishable by up to twenty years imprisonment.

Steinke’s sentence came after Anaya turned to face a courtroom gallery packed with more than forty family members and friends of the victims, many wearing T-shirts with Randall-Stewart’s picture on the front, and apologized.

“They (Zach and Candace) were very good friends of mine. I loved Zach like a brother,” said Anaya, standing before the gallery in an orange jail jumpsuit.

“I wish I could bring them back, I’m sorry,” said Anaya, who had about a dozen family members and supporters in the gallery.

During arguments before sentencing, Deputy Platte County Attorney Morgan Smith said Anaya was a youthful man who had been making bad choices for years prior to the crash in the one thousand one hundred block of East 23rd Street on Jan. 28.

Smith said Anaya had been cited for minor in possession of alcohol five times and zero tolerance violations twice in the years leading up to last January’s rollover. He had served time in county jail for a duo of the MIPs and had been released from probation on another just five months before the fatal crash.

Anaya’s bad choices continued the night of Jan. Twenty seven when he determined to go to an underage drinking party in Colfax County and when he determined to drive home that night, the prosecutor told the judge.

Smith said the accident reconstruction report done by law enforcement estimated Anaya’s car was traveling 71-73 mph in a forty five mph zone when it became airborne and spinned several times before coming to rest on its top in a roadside ditch.

“(The defendant) walked away with scarcely a scrape,” said Smith, noting that Anaya’s blood alcohol level was more than one 1/Two times the legal limit that night.

Anaya’s blood alcohol concentration level was tested at .129 after the crash, well above the state’s .08 limit for driving.

Defense attorney Bradley Ewalt of Norfolk called the fatal crash a bitter tragedy while asking the judge to give his client a chance for rehabilitation.

Ewalt asked Steinke to consider the support suggested the defendant by the family members of Zachary Tharnish.

The family had written a victim influence statement to the judge requesting that Anaya be given a lenient sentence and a chance at rehabilitation.

“We’ve already lost two youthfull people,” Ewalt said. “(My client) will pay for the rest of his life for their loss.”

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